SpaceX Breaks Ground on Vandenberg Launch Site for Falcon Heavy - The World’s Most Powerful Rocket

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies) today took another major step
toward the first launch of the Falcon Heavy. This will be the world’s
most powerful rocket, with more than twice the payload-to-orbit capacity
of the space shuttle, but at only one third the cost of
the Boeing/Lockheed Delta IV Heavy. The Falcon Heavy will be the first
ever rocket to break the $1,000-per-pound-to-orbit barrier, less than a
tenth as much as the Shuttle.

“This presents a great opportunity for the DoD to avoid cancelling
other programs and minimize reductions in personnel as budgets contract.”

SpaceX CEO and chief rocket designer Elon Musk was joined by California
Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, 30th Space Wing Commander Colonel Richard W.
Boltz and Lompoc Mayor John Linn to break ground on a new launch site
for the Falcon Heavy—Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Air Force
Base.

Falcon Heavy, along with SpaceX’s medium-lift Falcon 9, offers the next
generation of launch capability to the US Air Force, NASA, and
commercial satellite companies at revolutionary costs. With a launch
site at Vandenberg and the world’s largest rocket, SpaceX will be ready
to compete for the full range of US government business, provided
competition is allowed. Currently, United Launch Alliance, a joint
venture between Boeing and Lockheed, has a sole-source monopoly contract
for Defense Department business.

“These are difficult fiscal times for our federal government and the
Falcon vehicles can save the Department of Defense almost $2 billion per
year in launch costs, while increasing reliability and capability,” said
Musk. “This presents a great opportunity for the DoD to avoid cancelling
other programs and minimize reductions in personnel as budgets contract.”

Falcon Heavy is to arrive at Vandenberg by the end of 2012, and its
inaugural flight will follow soon after. It will be the most powerful
rocket in the world since the Saturn V, which launched the Apollo
spacecraft to the moon. The SpaceX launch vehicle boasts 3.8 million
pounds of thrust from its 27 engines—equivalent to fifteen 747s at full
power.

The first flight from SLC-4E (previously known as PALC2-4—Point Arguello
Launch Complex) was Aug. 14, 1964, when a National Reconnaissance Office
KH-7 satellite launched atop an Atlas-Agena D. The last vehicle to
launch from this site was a Titan IV carrying a NRO B-26 payload on Oct.
19, 2005.

Vandenberg AFB has been the proving ground for US defense vehicles for
more than half a century, from the critical Intercontinental Ballistic
Missile testing that helped win the Cold War to mighty launch vehicles
like the aforementioned Titan. The Falcon family of launch vehicles will
continue this rich tradition, with its wide range of capabilities for
the NRO and other Department of Defense agencies, NASA and other civil
customers, as well as commercial customers.

SpaceX is a leading American space transport company, advancing the
boundaries of space technology through its Falcon launch vehicles and
Dragon spacecraft. With the retirement of NASA’s space shuttle program,
the Falcon 9/Dragon system will begin delivery of cargo and, in a few
years, astronauts to the International Space Station.www.spacex.com